John the rouge explorer a SAO Fan Fic
by SkyBreed
Summary: Follow the solo player named John on his adventures through SAO. Uploads will come weekly, Adventures of Team JPN is still my main focus, this is more for writers block and for kicks and giggles.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

'_I got lucky having contacts in Japan. This game was never supposed to be released in the U.S until later.' _ The man dawned the full-dive headgear. "Link Start!" A loading screen appeared on the full-dive, checking eyesight, language all the normal base routine things.

John was now inside Sword Art Online, the game he dreamt about since the full-dive project became reality. From what John knew, he was the only American player to be in Sword Art Online. Even more rare, he was also a beta tester.

John looked around; he still had his black cloak from the beta along with his dagger. John was an assassin, he always liked to role-play as the sneaky rouge type, he did want to be a mage but there was no magic in SAO other than Sword skills. The market place was crowded, tons of people buying low level items preparing themselves for their journeys and some even creating guilds immediately.

Another person sprinted through the market place, he had a mission. He was another beta tester, he could tell by how well he handled the mechanics. There was a tracking feature for other friendly players. John activated this and began to slowly tail the person.

The man stopped sprinting; he was talking to a man with a red bandana over his head, making him **–**almost- look like a samurai. Looks like yet another new player wanting advice. The blue player agreed, his name was Kirito, the other was Klein.

Klein set out to kill his first monster, a boar. He got hit in the crotch and toppled over in pain, to which Kirito reminded him: there was no pain. That's right you don't feel pain, but you do feel other stimuli like food, physical contact, and so forth. When John first set out he wondered about kissing, did it have the same effect as the real world? Was this all just a false reality he was able to just sink into any time he wanted to escape life?

"SAO was all I thought about day and night." Kirito said with his sword drawn in front of him speaking to Klein and bringing John out of his deep thought. _ 'We all did the same. Some of us more than others. This game could be our new realities. This could be our escape from life.' _ "I'll introduce you another time." Klein said to Kirito. Those two were growing closer and closer to each other, what a touching friendship they had. John often wished he wasn't a solo player, but a rouge has no use in group combat.

Klein began to log out. "Huh?" "There's no log out button." _'The hell? That's a total lie there is one, noobs gah!' _ John checked for himself. _'What the hell? What's going on? This can't be right. Okay, okay calm down a moment. It may just be a bug and the game devs are fixing it as we speak. _"MY TERIYAKI MAYO PIZZA AND GINGER ALE!" Klein yelled.

He is certainly an interesting character John thought to himself. "H-How old's your little sister?" Klein latched on to Kirito. _'Is this even the time for that? Seriously? Is he a pedophile, or a lollycon, I can't tell.' _

A bell rang in the distance and the world's sky turned red with blocks that said: Server announcement. Before he knew it, John was standing in the central plaza in the town of beginnings with all of the other ten thousand players. _'Something is very, very wrong here.' _ What looked like blood spilled out of some of the blocks and the game master appeared.

"Attention Players." He began. "Welcome to my world." _'He couldn't be the game maker…. Could he?' _ "My name is Kayaba Akihiko." _'No way… That's him! That's the game's lead developer!' _"As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world."

Shock spread through the crowd of people, people wondering if that is actually him. "I'm sure you've already noticed, that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat… This is not a defect in the game. It is a feature in Sword Art Online." _'What the hell? How is this happening? I'm stuck here?! Wait! Wait! Wait! Calm down, he might say more.' _ "You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

Everyone began to start a slight panic; some people even tried to leave but were forced back by a temporary barrier. "Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world." _'This is all real, two hundred and thirteen people lay dead by the hands of one man… Damn it.' _

Monitors showing news footage of the dead and their families appeared around the Game Master. "As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal."

"I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the Game. If you HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost." The screen of the news started to disappear. "And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain." John had flash backs to all the times he had died and just resurrected. John slumped to his knees, eyes wide with terror. "I…" He began stuttering. "I'm going to die here."

"There is only one means of escape. To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, floor one. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor One Hundred and you will clear the game."

"What is he talking about?" "Clear?" "Seriously?!" Shouts came from the crowd. _'All one hundred floors. There are so many. The bosses get harder and harder every time. Is it even possible?! No, there is always a way.' _

"Finally, I've added a present from me to your items storage. Please see for yourselves." John quickly opened the items menu. _'A mirror? What?' _John activated the mirror; a small land mirror appeared in his hands. What he saw shocked him. It was him, the actual him not his player character. Someone looked over at him and realized he was an outsider, not even from Japan their mouth hung open.

Blue flames appeared around everyone, causing them to look like they actually do, their race, their body, their gender. Everything. Everyone started in a panic. _'This is possible, the NerveGear can see your face and to calibrate it you had to touch yourself all over. My god, this is genius but still I… I don't… I need to survive.' _

"Right now, you're probably wondering, "Why? Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all of this?" My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason… To create this world and intervene in it. And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial of the official Sword Art online launch. Good luck, players."

Kayaba started to dissipate; John's eyes were filled with anger and fear. The barriers lifted. This was John's chance. John sprinted out of the central plaza with his destination in mind, the next town over, he had to get away before all of the resources were depleted here in the town of beginnings. The world has changed; the only thing that matters now is survival.

_**A/N: Didn't expect SAO did you?! Show some love for the new story and leave me a review so I know how I'm doing! Thanks for reading! P.S Team JPN is still my baby, but this is just something to do in free time! So don't worry about JPN it is still here!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_**A/N: This may be a very emotional chapter, but I enjoyed writing this so much! I don't know how often I will upload this series, I know for a fact it will be no later than each week but I may do more than just once a week, Happy Halloween everyone! P.S. Don't get too depressed over this chapter! =3**_

John ran, all he could do was run. A full twenty-four hours after the initial load up people came down from the panic, guilds were built, murders started to appear. Things went to hell a ton quicker than John had expected.

"Hey you! I'm not done with you yet!" A man in heavy armor, a paladin, was chasing John. This man had accused John of theft and sought out to kill him for his crimes. Technically John could just stay in the towns since PKing in the cities wasn't allowed, but if he stayed, so would the paladin. When John would try to leave, he would practically be ambushed at the gates.

"Listen buddy. This can all come to an end here. Yes I may be a rouge but I have done nothing wrong! I have stolen nothing! I'm on your side! I wish to help everyone escape! I am an explorer of Aincrad!" John tried to reason with the paladin, nothing was working. The paladin just kept running after him. _'He has a high agility, but not as high as mine. I can out maneuver him. Gah! I'm going to hate doing this!' _

John turned to face his opponent, whom slowed to a walk trying to intimidate John. "Listen, my name is John, I come from America, I am an outsider but I wish to help." "I don't care. You will pay for your sins!" The guy had lost it, he thinks there is some divine force driving him, yet it's his own free will gone insane. "Alright then. Fine, lets fight." John dashed at the man who swung his broadsword in anticipation of his moves. John found a weak spot to the man, his legs, while he boar a heavy chest plate, he lacked plate legs and instead had chainmail.

John took action; he slid under the paladin leaving him confused while he stabbed his dagger into the paladin's leg making him fall to the ground. The dagger was tipped with a paralysis poison, one of the hardest poisons to make, and even harder to make harmless. John had spent the entirety of the beta figuring out plants and other various materials to create potions and poisons.

The paladin was defenseless and unmoving. "You spineless coward! Kill me! Finish me!" Amazingly the paladin was strong enough to talk why he was paralyzed. "Sir, you have demonstrated the error of your ways. A rouge explorer like me wants nothing more than to help the quest to win, not hinder it. This will be the last you see of me. I shall head to a later area. The poison will wear off soon, I recommend getting back to town as quick as possible, the PKs are never ending out here."

With that John "left" the poisoned paladin to lie on the ground and think about what he has done, just like a little kid. Little did the paladin a killer lurked in the shadows waiting for John to leave until he struck.

The murder was sure that John had left and stood over the paladin. "Soon you will be united by your divine leader!" The hooded man laughed like a crazed man. The man began to attempt to plunge his sword only to be met by the dagger of John.

"Who the hell are you?! Gah! I don't care! Fine! I'll kill you first!" The man wanted to add kills to his list, he was a red player. Red players are the worst kind, they are player killers, but now, not only did they kill the avatar but the person controlling it too. John wouldn't let misguided people die by a murder's blade.

John quickly tipped his dagger with another poison, this time the poison would take effect and slowly drain the target of their HP, until reaching five percent of their health, this would be countered with a healing potion that doubled as a paralysis poison. The hooded man stabbed at John quickly, with an incredible amount of strength. This was a beta tester, the same as him. He was undoubtedly the one infamous for killing players left and right in the beta.

John analyzed his situation, he had a wounded paladin that had paralysis for the next ten seconds and then a poisoned dagger equipped with a crazed killer staring him down. Ten seconds, the word came to the front of John's mind again. _Nine, Eight, Seven._ The killer started his charge at John. _Six, five, four… _ The killer started to swing his sword at John, time slowed and he found his target area, the left hip of the killer was wide open.

John took a stab at the killer, injecting him with the toxin he spent days perfecting. The killer's life points drained quickly, leaving a small sliver of health left. _Two, One! _The paladin jumped up from the ground and grabbed the killer by the throat. The paladin gave an incredible amount of force into his grip crushing the man's neck killing him, sending sparkling blue polygons everywhere. He had died, the infamous killer, dead.

A soul removed from the world forever, someone who couldn't remember his morals, he was dangerous. Yet John felt a huge sense of regret. John slumped to his knees. "No…No…He can't be…" John was in total disbelief, when he heard people had died, he didn't feel anything, maybe a little remorse, but seeing it… Seeing it had a different effect on him.

John knew exactly what would happen to others, innocents, villains, loved ones, everyone if they didn't know how to survive. John felt sick, his stomach churned and a heavy guilt sunk to the bottom of his stomach.

The paladin put his hand on John's shoulder. "The names Kamiko, I'm sorry about before." John just stared at the ground with wide eyes, unable to process the words from the paladin.

John stood up and started to walk even further away from the town gates. "Kamiko was it? Never let another player in this town die. Be the paladin you're supposed to be. Protect the weak. I must leave, something awaits me, I can't be here…" "John wait!" Kamiko began. "At least take this with you." Kamiko held out the murder's sword. "It will be better than just a dagger." The long sword glistened in the sun of Aincrad. Its steel body shined brilliantly, a sight to behold.

John gripped the sword in his right hand; he could feel a strange sensation coming from it, it felt like the soul of the man who last owned it. John put it in its sheath and walked away with the sword and sheath in hand. "Thank you." With out another word John walked away, knowing now his true goal. Beat this world and bring the creation of Aincrad to its knees. He felt a need to protect everything that lived in the world of Sword Art Online. His hell had become his reality and his worst nightmare had become his life.

With no one to turn to, John continued the path to the next village. There was a group of people there, needing supplies to start a raid on the Floor Boss; he had poisons and health potions to help them. Maybe, just maybe, he could find someone to call friend in this now empty world. The world filled with death, the world filled with lies. John had to find a way to help win the fight against the program.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_**A/N: I'll try to be a little happier in this chapter! Thanks for reading, and review? **_

Under a heavy depression from his last encounter with players John decided to just hold the burden on his back and trudge through life. In John's eyes he had already failed his mission: Keeping players alive and healthy. All he could do was wander, looking for ingredients. He knew he had to get supplies to the raid parties getting ready to clear the first boss.

Several wolves lined the path that he was on; no way to avoid them, the only thing he could hope for was a sneak attack before they would agro on him. Not a chance this time, they were already facing him. Even if he no longer wanted to fight that didn't mean that the world would just stop for him.

John had to fight, despite everything that happened around him. There was one solution to this small pack of wolves: Kill them all. After all these weren't players, they were code; they were wild animals, no need for them to be here attacking other players. If only he had one other person to help him, five simple wolves would be a simple task.

As if on queue a cloaked person appeared and rushed the first wolf. The cloaked person fell back beside John ready to take on another wolf as the one who was just attacked shattered into shinny code.

"Not bad, but I can do better." The cloaked person said looking up at John, the person was a few inches shorter than John.

"I guess you won't tell me why you've been following me?" John asked with a smile as he prepared himself to launch at the next wolf. Even though John only had a dagger, it could still do major amounts of damage if used correctly.

"Nope, kind of hard to when I just randomly ran into you." John let out a small laugh before using his sword skill to take out an approaching wolf. "Mind telling me what a stranger is doing all the way out here? This place is supposed to be barren and filled with higher level monsters." John asked. "I could ask the same of you. But since you asked first, I need some of the rare ingredients that lie around here." "So that makes two of us then? I didn't think many players knew about potion making."

"Let's just say some beta testers have shadows." "You've… You've been following me?" "Yeah. Kind of." "So that's why we both have cloaks, am I correct?" "Yes." John flipped his hood down to reveal his face. John had an almost golden skin tone; his hair was long and dark black. His eyes yellow with content, although his eyes were a dirty yellow, not a pure sunlight yellow.

"You want to know who I am, don't you?" "Yes, I do." The cloaked person almost sounded excited. "I guess I should say who I really am. My avatar's name is HavenStriker, but my real name is John S." "You're American aren't you?" "Not fully, I'm actually mostly Irish. Its amazing how fast I learned this language though." "So, my turn?"

John only nodded for an answer. The cloaked person removed the hood to reveal long brunet bangs and a fair white skin tone. "I'm RebelHunter, my real name is Joan K." "I see you're doing the same as me. You're not fully Japanese are you?" "No, no I'm not. I'm Half Japanese hence my last name, and half English."

"So, we're somewhat the same." "Exactly. I saw you in the beta helping all of those new players. Giving them potions to help them along their travels. There was no potion you couldn't make. I wanted to be just like you." "So you already lied to me then. You were following me."

Joan looked down at the ground in guilt. "Yeah… Sorry." John put his hand on her shoulder. Her head shot up as she flinched and her blue eyes met his, which were caring and soft. "Don't worry about it. You probably didn't want me to be suspicious of you. I understand how it works."

"So! What are you looking for then?" John said quickly changing his tone of voice. "Well, there are a bunch of wild flowers near here, red in color with a spikey stem. "Ah yes, the poison rose is what I believe you to be looking for. That's quite a high level poison. Are you sure you can make it?" "I was your shadow after all." "Good point. Still you might want to wait and raise your level before you start, our stats got reset."

"Hey, where did that last wolf go?" "Uh. We missed one?" John asked with a quizzical face. The last remaining wolf was here somewhere. Wolves, coded ones for that matter wouldn't run away from a fight. "So where could he…" John was tackled by the wolf and landed with a thud.

The wolf… Was friendly? No the wolf was a cub that had decided not to fight and registered as a non-player character NPC for short and had the ability to be tamed. "Uhh… What?" John was very confused. "Awww! Its such a cute puppy!" Joan almost yelled.

John flipped over and held the pup in his arms. "Oi, you belong to her now. Not me." John motioned to Joan and reached the puppy out to her. "Since you think its so cute, you can take care of him." "I will!" There were stars in her eyes; it made John smile for the first time in a long time. "Who's a good dog? Hum? You are! Yes you are." Joan was speaking to the dog as if it was a house pet.

"Hey. Joan…" "Yes John?" John looked away and tried to find out exactly what he wanted to say. "Would you… Wo-…" John let out and prolonged sigh. "Party with me?" He finally said, some how losing his courage after he said it. "Yes! Of course I will!" "Now before you say no I- Yes?" "Yes. I would love to party with you! Hey, we could even make our own guild of potion makers!" "Maybe not just yet. We shall wait until we are done here, then we shall think on it a little more heavily." John quickly sent the party invite. Joan accepted the invite as quickly as John had sent it.

"Poison roses. Hum… Why would you need one of the deadliest poisons in the game?" "Well…" Joan kicked her boot in the dirt a few times. "I wanted to have it for an emergency. With all of the player kills… I'm scared. I'm scared to even walk the streets of any town. I don't feel so safe anymore."

"I'll tell you one of the promises I make to myself every time I woke up in the real world: I shall never let a party member actively with me fall below yellow health. They shall remain alive as long as I have control over my own system."

"See! That's why I want to be just like you! You're so kind, caring, and friendly… And I'm…" Joan's voice shrank. "I'm just a cold hearted introvert with no ambitions." "Joan. Let me tell you something. No, let me show you something." John again put his hand on Joan's shoulder. "Look around you. No one knows who you are. Here you are free you be you, despite what anyone says."

"I always thought the purpose behind making characters in a game was to express outright whom you actually are. You could be the person who you always wanted to. You have a chance to start new, now and when we return back to the real world. Just keep your head up, you can do great things."

"Do you always monologue like that?" Joan asked jokingly. "But, in all seriousness… Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to turn things around. I want to become the second you." "No, no you don't. You just want to become the you that you've always wanted to be. Now, lets go pick some flowers."


End file.
